Dawn of the digital natives - is reading declining? | Technology | The Guardian

A number of people wrote in late last year to ask what I thought of the NEA report on declining literacy, To Read Or Not To Read, in the light of my arguments in Everything Bad Is Good For You. I actually jotted down some pretty extensive notes about it, either for a blog post or an op-ed, but it was right before Christmas, and so they ended up sitting on my hard drive. But the other day, the Guardian asked me if I had anything to say about the issue, so I went back and wrote up this little essay that's running today in the Guardian. Here's a quick taste of it:

The NEA makes a convincing case that both kids and adults are reading fewer books. "Non-required" reading - ie, picking up a book for the fun of it - is down 7% since 1992 for all adults, and 12% for 18-24 year olds.

The subtitle of the NEA report - A Question Of National Consequence - would lead you believe this dramatic drop must have had done significant damage to our reading proficiencies as a society. And indeed, NEA chair Dana Giola states boldly in his introduction: "The story the data tell is simple, consistent and alarming." But then the data turns out to be complex, inconsistent and not really that alarming at all. As Giola puts it, in the very next sentence: "Although there has been measurable progress in recent years in reading ability at the elementary school level, all progress appears to halt as children enter their teenage years."

What was that again? There's measurable progress in two of the three age groups reviewed? Actually, it's more than just measurable: if you look at the charts, the single biggest change - either positive or negative - is the spike upwards in reading abilities among nine-year-olds, which jumped seven points from 1999.

But at least there must be an "alarming" drop in reading skills among those 17-year-olds to justify this big report. And there it is: the teenagers are down five points from 1988. But wait, this is all on a scale of 0-500. If you scored it on a standard 100-point exam scale, it's the equivalent of dropping a single point. Not exactly cause for national alarm.

Comments

[Ricardo de Castro Barbosa]

I came from NY today, arriving in S.Paulo this morning. I had the honor of travelling with Steven. Hope you all have the opportunity to see him at Canal Livre (I will !)

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Steven! Just came from Campus Party, @ São Paulo... Loved your lecture! Just wanted to say that Interface Culture saved my graduate work @ college! THANK YOU! Hope you like Brasil ;)

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[chris sivori]

Maybe long form reading is in decline due mostly to the weakness of reading things on the computer. This is one reason I'm excited about reflected light displays like eInk (used in the Kindle). I think if we can have a better way to read things digitally the long form will become more popular.

[Yellowhandman]

Your argument is based on quantity, but ignores quality. Clearly, not all reading is equally valuable, and my concern is more that today's youth may not be reading sufficiently stimulating things. A diet of friends' blogs and entertainment websites simply creates a feedback loop.

[Comments (6)]

Fuck You in hell.

[charlie]

Heh, seems like we were thinking the same thing.

I just read this post (03mar08), but have been thinking about this topic for a while and summed it up in a recent post:

http://cognections.typepad.com/lifeblog/2008/02/were-moving-int.html

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[Davis Teippe]

Steven: How could you misspell Dana Gioia's name several times in your column when you linked to the press release which spelled it properly?

It's unfortunate that we choose to apply severely critical judgment to a writer's thoughts when s/he cannot be bothered to spell properly, but that is what we do.

Gioia or Giola, the choice is your's Mr. Johnson.

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[David Boese]

Hi Steven
I just finished reading your book ""Mind Wide Open" and really learned a lot. I have been interested in how the brain works for sometime now and have come up with my own ideas. I don't give myself credit for anything that comes out of my brain, because I believe the thought originated somewhere else. My idea of this brought me to have a saying---"My Brain has a Mind of it's Own."
If you ever think of writing another book about this subject, I will give you permission to use this phrase as a "Title." I have read many authors who have written sequels with just a twist of what they have already written and you may want to do the same. On the other hand with the research you have done on the subject of the brain, you may have loads of new information. I would like to write a book, but it's not likely to happen as I'm 72 and in poor health, having survived 7 heart attacks. I look forward to your next book.

David Boese

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[Flug Australien]

Steven, I really enjoy your nice written posts. To be critically on this one I just have to agree with chris sivori.

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With so many online videos for almost every topic you can think of, reading is becoming less and less obsolete. I blame the web.

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I just finished reading your book ""Mind Wide Open" and really learned a lot. I have been interested in how the brain works for sometime now and have come up with my own ideas. I don't give myself credit for anything that comes out of my brain, because I believe the thought originated somewhere else. My idea of this brought me to have a saying---"My Brain has a Mind of it's Own."
If you ever think of writing another book about this subject, I will give you permission to use this phrase as a "Title." I have read many authors who have written sequels with just a twist of what they have already written and you may want to do the same. On the other hand with the research you have done on the subject of the brain, you may have loads of new information. I would like to write a book, but it's not likely to happen as I'm 72 and in poor health, having survived 7 heart attacks. I look forward to your next book.
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